Anime, games, and anime games

Month: June 2015

Oh man, it’s been a long time since I had a hatewatch (well, two seasons actually but that’s a long time for the Interwebs). I was hoping that Winter’s LN trio, whatever they were called, would be one of those. Alas, they were too dreadful to be hatewatched; rumours persist that the North Koreans are using them as torture devices for particularly tough POWs. And so, I was left with Seraph of the End in Spring and I was left with despair and anguish.

Let me first apologize for the extreme lateness of this post, because I decided to allocate all my blog-writing time to drafting my season preview, a process which requires through and rigourous research, along with some complicated IRL stuff (not the bad kind of IRL stuff, so no worries mates). Anyway, let’s move on to the JoJo episodes, shall we?

You though it was going to be Star Platinum in the opening, but it was me, ZA WARUDO!

REALLY GUYS REALLY DIO LIKE CAME OUT OF FUCKING NOWHERE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE OPENING AND HE PUNCHED THE SCREEN AND THEN HE WENT MUDAMUDAMUDAMUDA AND JOTARO WAS LIKE ORAORAORAORAORAORAORA AND IT WAS SO FUCKING COOL AND DAVID PRO IS SO BASED BECAUSE IT WAS CLEAR THAT THEY PLANNED THIS SINCE THE BEGINNING OF THE EGYPT ARC GOD THIS WAS SO FUCKING AWESOME

2015 continues to be eh in anime, overall. Winter was extremely disappointing while Spring was indeed good, but not quite that great like Fall 2014 was (although I miss that season mainly because it brought upon us GARO: The Animation). And because we crossed into Bizarro World apparently and none of us noticed, this summer does seem to be the season with the most potential this year, despite Summer usually being the shittiest season there is (let us not remember Summer 2010). What new spore of madness is this? Let’s find out!

With all these new anime coming and going, this show has been constantly on my mind ever since then. Despite only ranking #2 in its seasonal roundup, it’s definitely the one to have a really lasting impression on me with its writing, execution, its everything. Probably, it’s proof that I can be rather short-term with my seasonal roundups, but that’s not the topic of discussion at hand. The thing is, I haven’t paid this anime the honor it deserves, and to that purpose I will now review it to explain why it’s so fucking awesome.

Last week, we left JoJo on the cliffhanger of whether Noriaki Kakyoin, reroreroer extraordinaire, was a bad enough dude to defeat DIO. And this week, we open on Kakyoin swinging across Cairo like Japanese Spider-Man. Is he, indeed, a bad enough motherfucker (figuratively and literally) to at least put up a fight? Well…

The best part in the entire episode was DIO casually strolling through the streets of Egypt and nobody gives a fuck about it. I don’t know what Egyptians talk about that is so much more interesting than a seven foot tall blonde vampire wearing a cape and a belt with a heart-shaped buckle and kneepads.

And so, we finally reach DIO’s World, the most iconic fight in the series. Despite it initially being a mystery what is The World’s power, we all probably know what it does unless you’ve been living under a rock since 1999. And if you don’t know, don’t worry, I won’t say what it is until the show says what it is. That said, DIO’s power is definitely less esoteric than that of Kars or the final boss Stands in later parts.

Plenty of big names have failed me this season, sadly. But it doesn’t really matter, because I was still pleasantly surprised by some of the shows I wasn’t looking forward to. Like every anime season, really.

Hot

PUNCH-LINE

If I could time travel like Yuuta can and meet my previous self from the April 2015 roundup and heard his opinions on this show then, I would punch him/me in the nuts so hard his/my testicles would come out flying out of his/my nostrils (I have no idea how pronouns work when referring to my past self). The truth is, PUNCH-LINE’s deceptively low-brow start was instead hiding something much, much more complex and engrossing than the mere panty shot gags as the first three episodes would want you to believe.

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders 「Battle in Egypt」

We’re finally on DIO’s World! Hallefuckingllujah!

The Heroic Legend of Arslan

Yeah I know I’m not covering this until next season or so due to real life time constraints, but be reassured that while it’s still introducing characters and plot points, it remains enjoyable, especially due to best guy being best guy.

Blood Blockade Battlefront

Is Blood Blockade Battlefront still awesome?

Fuck yes it is.

RIN-NE

RIN-NE still keeps connecting with its jokes, and had a particularly hilarious two-parter about the pettiest demon imaginable and Hell as a really inefficient government building (although that may be redundant). But the real star of the show is that cute cat abomination there. He’s the most hilarious thing in this show.

An Otaku and His Waifu Have Lots of Sex S2

seriously though why am I even still watching this

Not so hot

Ninja Slayer From Animation

I understand that Ninja Slayer is one of those joke shows like Inferno Cop that Trigger makes to fund their other, more expensive shows. And yes, I know that Ninja Slayer is a parody of how Westerners view Japan. But still, it has failed to connect with me. I think that the problem with Ninja Slayer From Animation is that it’s simply not stupid enough. It doesn’t have the wild and illogical yet charming and energetic anarchy of Inferno Cop, nor does much of the humor work with me, and no amount of Domo Ninja Slayer Desu, YEAART or Sayonara will fix that.

Some time after I wrote this I then thought that maybe I’m being too harsh on Ninja Slayer and that maybe Inferno Cop isn’t as good as I thought it is. Then I watched the first episode of Inferno Cop just to see if my memories were lying. Then I ended up watching the entire thing again.

Inferno Cop is still fucking amazing.

Wish Upon The Pleiades

This show is really boring and I have no idea why picked it up.

Yet, this is Gainax’s finest show in a while. This is not a compliment and more of an epitaph.

Is It Wrong to- oh wait, is the next plot point here? Damn, I wanted to- shit, we moved on, already?

Believe it or not, this got worse. Not only is the pacing still atrocious, but now we’re heading towards harem and overpowered main character bullshit. Because that’s totally what this show needed.

WORSE THAN COSPRAYERS

Gunslinger Stratos

In this moment, I’m speechless. I knew this show was really shit last month and hell I even fell asleep mid-episode. But now the plot is in full-force and holy fucking shit it’s a really damn incoherent mess. There is nothing good about this show and I love it so much.